Writing facilitated the daily life of the neighbourhood’s inhabitants in various ways. School students and adults alike, wrote on wooden tablets covered with wax. They engraved the letters with a sharp tool, the stylus, which had a broad end to erase mistakes. To write on papyrus scrolls or other surfaces, they used ink which they kept in inkpots.

They received letters and documents sealed with wax protected in bronze cases or sealed with lead, especially in Byzantine times.

They kept all kinds of notes on pottery fragments (ostraka) and marked storage vessels with indications of their capacity or contents. Sometimes they would also inscribe their names on the drinking cups they used, in order to tell them apart.

Vessels containing products such as wine were marked with information about the manufacturer and place of origin, while lamps carried the maker’s mark or the name of the workshop that made them.

In the event that they were forced to mortgage their house or field, they were obliged to disclose this publicly by setting up a stone inscription, an horos.